Dean A. Strang

Biography

I strive to offer what a client values most in a lawyer: good judgment, founded on listening to what the client really wants and needs. Then I try to express that judgment through exceptional written work; integrity in encounters with clients and everyone involved in a case; and simple care.

When this means taking the longer, harder route, I do that with a client. Shortcuts usually serve a lawyer’s comfort, not a client’s cause. And cutting corners serves neither the client nor the lawyer.

Education

• Dartmouth College (A.B., Government, cum laude), 1982
• University of Virginia School of Law (J.D.), 1985

Employment

• Loyola University Chicago School of Law, Distinguished Professor in Residence, August 2020—present
• University of Iowa College of Law, Visiting Professor, 2022 and recurrent
• University of San Francisco School of Law, Visiting Professor, August 2019—June 2020
• StrangBradley, LLC, 2014—2019; of counsel, August 2019—present
• Hurley, Burish & Stanton, S.C., 2005—2013
• Federal Defender Services of Wisconsin, Inc.
  Federal Defender and Executive Director,
  Eastern and Western Districts of Wisconsin, 2000—2005
• Fitzgerald & Strang, S.C., 1997—2000
• Shellow, Shellow & Glynn, S.C.
  Shareholder, 1993—1997
  Associate, 1988—1993
• United States Attorney’s Office
  Eastern District of Wisconsin
  Assistant United States Attorney, 1987—1988
• Reinhart, Boerner, Van Deuren, Norris & Rieselbach, s.c., Associate
  1985—1987

Publications

• Books

  Dean A. Strang, KEEP THE WRETCHES IN ORDER: AMERICA’S BIGGEST MASS TRIAL, THE RISE OF THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT, AND THE FALL OF THE IWW (U. Wisconsin Press 2019; paperback ed., 2020)

  Dean A. Strang, WORSE THAN THE DEVIL: ANARCHISTS, CLARENCE DARROW, AND JUSTICE IN A TIME OF TERROR (U. Wisconsin Press 2013 & rev. ed. 2016)

• Invited Book Chapters

  Dean A. Strang, Captivity and Surveillance: Punishment is Not the Point, in CATHOLIC PERSPECTIVES ON AMERICAN CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM (Cecelia Klingele & Irene Joe, eds.), forthcoming in 2023

• Academic Articles

  Keith A. Findley & Dean A. Strang, Ending Manner-of-Death Testimony and Other Opinion Determinations of Crime, 60 DUQUESNE L. REV. 302 (2022) (on SSRN)

  Stephen E. Henderson & Dean A. Strang, Behind Bartkus: A Flamboyant Lawyer, a Vindictive Judge, and the Untold Story of Double Jeopardy’s Dual Sovereignty, 24 NEW CRIM. L. REV. 498 (2021) (on SSRN)

  Stephen E. Henderson & Dean A. Strang, Double Jeopardy’s Dual Sovereignty: A Tragic (and Implausible) Lack of Humility, 18 OHIO ST. J. CRIM. LAW 365 (2020) (on SSRN)

  Dean A. Strang, Inaccuracy and the Involuntary Confession: Understanding Rogers v. Richmond Rightly, 110 J. CRIM. L. & CRIMINOLOGY 69 (2020) (on SSRN)

  Dean A. Strang, How Can You Defend Those People?, 45 HOFSTRA L. REV. 747 (2017)

  Dean A. Strang, Beyond Guilt or Innocence in One Case: Larger Issues that Making A Murderer Invites Us to Consider, 49 TEX. TECH. L. REV. 891 (2017)

  Dean A. Strang, Humility in Criminal Justice: What it Might Invite Us to Reconsider, 100 MARQ. L. REV. 1433 (2017)

  Foreword: Why Wickersham?, 96 MARQ. L. REV. 993 (2013) (with Daniel D. Blinka & Michael M. O’Hear)

  Dean A. Strang, Becoming What We Pretend to Be: Signs of Values in the Casual Rhetoric of American Criminal Justice, 24 WIS. J. L., GENDER & SOC. 313 (2009)

  Dean A. Strang, Felons, Guns, and the Limits of Federal Power, 39 J. MARSHALL L. REV. 385 (2006)

  Dean A. Strang, The Rhetoric of Death, 1998 WIS. L. REV. 841 (1998)

  Robert K. Sholl & Dean A. Strang, Age Discrimination in the Modern Reduction in Force, 69 MARQ. L. REV. 331 (1986)

• Other Publications and Occasional Writing

  Dean A. Strang & Nancy Gertner, Ketanji Brown Jackson Defended the Poor—Experience that Can Balance the Supreme Court, BOSTON GLOBE (March 22, 2022)

  Nancy Gertner & Dean Strang, America Should Not Tolerate Vigilante Behavior, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES (November 9, 2021)

  Peter Neufeld, Keith Findley & Dean Strang, Thousands of Missed Police Killings Prove We Must Address Systemic Bias in Forensic Science, WASHINGTON POST (October 15, 2021)

  Brief of Amici Curiae for Sixteen Evidence and Sentencing Law Professors in United States v. Tsarnaev, No. 20-443 (U.S. Supreme Court), filed August 25, 2021

  Dean A. Strang, A Little-Noticed Police Killing in North Carolina, THE PROGRESSIVE (online); 15 newspapers through the Progressive Media Project and Tribune News Service (May 19, 2021)

  Dean A. Strang & Nancy Gertner, Supreme Court Rulings on Traffic Stops Reinforce Structural Racism in Policing, BOSTON GLOBE (April 16, 2021)

  Dean A. Strang, Don’t Abuse Clemency, Use It, THE PROGRESSIVE (online); 20 newspapers through the Progressive Media Project and Tribune News Service (January 4, 2021)

  Nancy Gertner & Dean A. Strang, What Trump’s Pardons Say About Criminal Justice, BOSTON GLOBE (December 29, 2020)

  Dean A. Strang, More Than Policing Needs to Change, THE PROGRESSIVE (July 2020) (online and print editions); 24 newspapers through the Progressive Media Project and Tribune News Service

  Dean A. Strang & Nancy Gertner, Now We See You: The Reid Technique and ‘When They See Us,’ NEW YORK LAW JOURNAL (November 14, 2019)

  Dean A. Strang, How the Legal Cascade Creates Negative Outcomes for Society, RTE Brainstorm website (March 29, 2019), https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2019/0328/1039175-how-the-legal-cascade-creates-negative-outcomes-for-society/

  Dean A. Strang, The Relationship Between True Crime and True Justice, RTE Brainstorm website (January 28, 2019), https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2019/0103/1020079-the-relationship-between-true-crime-and-true-justice/

  Dean A. Strang, Law, Literature and Bruce Springsteen, RTE Brainstorm website (July 23, 2018), https://www.rte.ie/eile/brainstorm/2018/0718/979511-law-literature-and-bruce-springsteen/

  Dean A. Strang, War and Democracy, essay in CANADA AT 150: BUILDING A FREE AND DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY, a book honoring the 150th anniversary of the Canadian Confederation and the 35th anniversary of its Charter of Rights and Freedoms (LexisNexis Canada, 2017)

  Hopelessness is the Enemy of Justice: An Interview with Bryan Stevenson, THE PROGRESSIVE, vol. 79, No. 12, pp. 50-53 (December 2015/January 2016)

  Dean A. Strang, Talking Law: Rules of Evidence as Language, 7 WISCONSIN DEFENDER 8 (February 1999)

  Dean A. Strang, Why Whitty Does Not Work, 6 WISCONSIN DEFENDER (November 1998)

  Dean A. Strang, The Federal Government Loses One In Denver—For Now, 6 WISCONSIN DEFENDER (August 1998)

  Dean A. Strang, Prior Inconsistent Statements, 5 WISCONSIN DEFENDER 12 (July 1997)

  Dean A. Strang, Why We Shouldn’t Kill Timothy McVeigh, 18 SHEPHERD EXPRESS, cover story (June 12, 1997)

  Dean A. Strang, Tim McVeigh’s Execution Would Be The Final Outrage, THE CAPITAL TIMES, Page 1C (June 16, 1997) (largely a reprint of the SHEPHERD EXPRESS article)

  Dean A. Strang, Yes: Justice Is Best Served By Allowing The Defense Of “Not Guilty By Reason Of Mental Disease Or Defect,” WISCONSIN COUNTIES 26 (February 1995)

Courses Taught

• Loyola University Chicago School of Law (2020—present)
  Criminal Law; Conflict of Laws; Evidence; Criminal Procedure; Persuasion; Torts
• University of Iowa College of Law (2022–present)
  Criminal Procedure: Investigations; Mass Incarceration (seminar)
• University of San Francisco School of Law (2019—2020) (visitor)
  Criminal Law; Criminal Procedure; Law, Social Sciences & Humanities (seminar)
• University of Limerick School of Law (Visiting Fellowship, February—March 2018)
  Portion of jurisprudence course; several other lectures
• University of Virginia School of Law (2017—2019) (adjunct)
  Persuasion (with Prof. Molly Bishop Shadel and Prof. Robert Sayler, during J-Terms)
• University of Wisconsin Law School (2008—2014) (adjunct)
  Evidence
  Constitutional Law II: Fourth, Fifth & Sixth Amendments
  Selected Problems in Jurisprudence: Law, Social Sciences & Humanities
  Law & Contemporary Problems: Defense Function in Private Practice (with Prof. Michele LaVigne)
• Marquette University Law School (2002-08, Spring 2011) (adjunct)
  Federal Crimes & Federal Criminal Procedure
  Law, Social Sciences & Humanities (with Prof. Michael M. O’Hear)
• University of Wisconsin, Division of Continuing Studies (2013—2016)
  Re-Imagining Criminal Justice (with Prof. Walter J. Dickey)
  Women Leading and Succeeding in the Progressive Era: Not Just Temperance
  The Sixteenth Through Twenty-First Amendments: Progressive Influence at its Apex
  Clarence Darrow & Four Trials of the (American) Century
  Bombs, Victor Berger, and Fighting Bob: WWI’s Turbulence at Home
• University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Fall 1997) (adjunct)
  Constitutional Law
  Continuing Legal Education Seminars
  Speaker at dozens since 1990

Invited Lectures

• OSGOODE HALL LAW SCHOOL (Toronto, Ont., Canada), Intensive in Criminal Law, held remotely, Guest Lecturer, January 13, 2022, and January 7, 2021
• WISCONSIN STATE BAR CONVENTION, held remotely, June 2021
• NEBRASKA STATE BAR CONVENTION, held remotely, October 2020
• Distinguished Speaker Series, UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO LAW SCHOOL (London, Ont., Canada), February 3, 2020
• Plenary Address, UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGES, annual conference (Miami, Florida and Redondo Beach, California), April 16 and July 15, 2019
• Keynote Address, MASSACHUSETTS DISTRICT JUDGES, Race & Ethnicity Conference (Third Annual) (Worcester, Massachusetts), March 22, 2019
• Plenary Address, RHODE ISLAND BAR ASSOCIATION, annual convention (Providence, Rhode Island), June 21, 2018
• Brett Lecture, UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE LAW SCHOOL (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia), October 5, 2017
• Annual Fellows Dinner, AMERICAN BAR FOUNDATION, Wisconsin Chapter (Milwaukee, Wisconsin), May 2017
• AALS, Institutional Advancement Section (San Francisco, California), January 2017
• State of Democracy Lecture, SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY, Campbell Public Affairs Institute, September 2016
• NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND (Galway, Ireland), September 2016
• University Philosophical Society, TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN (Dublin, Ireland), September 2016
• Annual Fellows Dinner, WISCONSIN BAR FOUNDATION (Milwaukee, Wisconsin), November 2016

Professional Affiliations and Community Service

• Law Forward, Advisory Board, 2020—present
• Public Safety and Criminal Justice Reform Policy Advisory Council, appointed December 2018 by Governor-Elect Tony Evers
• Center for Integrity in Forensic Sciences, co-founder and Board of Directors, 2017—2022
• National Criminal Defense College, Board of Regents, 2016—2017
• Federal Defender Services of Wisconsin, Inc., Board of Directors, 2015—2021; Chair, 2015—19
• Wisconsin Justice Initiative, Board of Directors, 2015—2022
• ALI Project on Sexual and Gender-Based Misconduct on Campus, Adviser, 2015—present
• Wisconsin Innocence Project, Advisory Board, 2011—2018
• Friends of the Remington Center, Board of Directors, 2011—2016
• Seventh Circuit Pattern Jury Instructions (Criminal) Committee, 2008—2018
• University of Wisconsin Law School, Adjunct Professor of Law, 2008—2014
• American Law Institute, elected October 2004
• Milwaukee Bar Association Judicial Selection Committee, member, 2004—2005
• Marquette University Law School, Adjunct Professor of Law, 2002—2011
• Eastern District of Wisconsin Bar Association, Vice President, 2005—2006; Co-Chair, Court History Project, 2002—2006
• National Criminal Defense College, Macon, Georgia, Faculty, 1999—2019
• Wisconsin Public Defender Trial Advocacy Institute, Faculty member, 1999—2018
• Wisconsin AIDS Fund, Executive Committee and Steering Committee, 1998—2001; board of directors, 1998—2002
• Wisconsin Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Inc. and WCADP Fund, Inc., co-founder, director and officer, 1996—1998, 2000—2001
• Seventh Circuit Bar Association, Board of Governors, 2000—2007
• Seventh Circuit Bar Association, Wisconsin Criminal Law Chair, 1996—2000
• Local Rules Advisory Committee (E.D. Wis.), member, 1998—2005
• Wisconsin State Bar, Criminal Law Section, Board of Directors, 2005—2009
• Wisconsin State Bar, Criminal Law Section, Death Penalty Liaison, 1994—1998
• Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort, Inc. (W.A.V.E.), Board of Directors, 1995—2000
• Sinai-Samaritan Hospital, Positive Health Clinic, Capital Campaign Committee, 1995—1996
• Wisconsin Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, 1989—present
• National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, 1988—present

Published Decisions

Lead counsel or co-counsel in:

• United States Supreme Court
  Buford v. United States, 532 U.S. 59 (2001) (lead counsel)
  United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220 (2005)
  (co-counsel for respondent Freddie J. Booker)
  United States v. Tsarnaev, No. 20-443 (2022) (counsel of record for Sixteen Evidence and Criminal Law Professors as amici curiae)
• Other Federal Courts
  South Central United Food & Commercial Workers Unions v. C & G Markets, Inc., 836 F.2d 221 (5th Cir. 1988)
  United States v. Shyres, 898 F.2d 647 (8th Cir. 1990)
  Olympia Hotels Corp. v. Johnson Wax Development Corp., 908 F.2d 1363 (7th Cir. 1990)
  United States v. Lechuga, 769 F. Supp. 1056 (E.D. Wis. 1991)
  United States v. Antzoulatos, 962 F.2d 720 (7th Cir. 1992)
  United States v. Lechuga, 975 F.2d 397 (7th Cir. 1992)
  United States v. Lechuga, 994 F.2d 346 (7th Cir. 1993) (en banc)
  United States v. Greene, 995 F.2d 793 (8th Cir. 1993)
  Willis v. Aiken, 8 F.3d 556 (7th Cir. 1993)
  United States v. Marlatt, 24 F.3d 1005 (7th Cir. 1994)
  United States v. Knapp, 25 F.3d 451 (7th Cir. 1994)
  United States v. Andersen, 45 F.3d 217 (7th Cir. 1995)
  United States v. Gunderson, 55 F.3d 1328 (7th Cir. 1995)
  United States v. D.F., 857 F. Supp. 1311 (E.D. Wis. 1994), aff’d, 63 F.3d 671 (7th Cir. 1995), vacated and remanded, 517 U.S. 1231 (1996)
  United States v. Barry, 71 F.3d 1269 (7th Cir. 1995)
  United States v. D.F., 115 F.3d 413 (7th Cir. 1997) (decision after remand from Supreme Court)
  United States v. Lovelace, 123 F.3d 650 (7th Cir. 1997) (argued only)
  United States v. O’Neill, 27 F. Supp.2d 1121 (E.D.Wis. 1998)
  United States v. Ladish Malting Co., 135 F.3d 484 (7th Cir. 1998)
  United States v. O’Neill, 52 F. Supp.2d 954 (E.D. Wis. 1999)
  United States v. Raszkiewicz, 169 F.3d 459 (7th Cir. 1999)
  United States v. Conant, 116 F. Supp.2d 1015 (E.D. Wis. 2000) (Michael J. Fitzgerald reported as counsel; opinion published after I became Federal Defender)
  United States v. Lemons, 153 F. Supp.2d 948 (E.D. Wis. 2001)
  United States v. Bjorkman, 270 F.3d 482 (7th Cir. 2001)
  United States v. Rodgers, 186 F. Supp.2d 971 (E.D. Wis. 2002)
  United States v. Norton, 218 F. Supp.2d 1014 (E.D. Wis. 2002)
  United States v. Lemons, 302 F.3d 769 (7th Cir. 2002)
  United States v. Anifowoshe, 307 F.3d 643 (7th Cir. 2002)
  United States v. Warneke, 310 F.3d 542 (7th Cir. 2002)
  United States v. Klinzing, 315 F.3d 803 (7th Cir. 2003)
  United States v. Kaquatosh, 242 F. Supp.2d 562 (E.D. Wis. 2003)
  United States v. Kaquatosh, 248 F. Supp.2d 806 (E.D. Wis. 2003)
  United States v. Kaquatosh, 252 F. Supp.2d 775 (E.D. Wis. 2003)
  United States v. Long, 324 F.3d 475 (7th Cir. 2003)
  United States v. Smith, 324 F.3d 922 (7th Cir. 2003)
  United States v. Redemann, 295 F. Supp.2d 887 (E.D. Wis. 2003)
  United States v. Sanapaw, 366 F.3d 492 (7th Cir. 2004)
  United States v. Swanson, 394 F.3d 520 (7th Cir. 2005) (appointed after oral argument for supplemental briefing on Blakely/Booker issue)
  United States v. McGee, 408 F.3d 966 (7th Cir. 2005) (for appellant Thomas King)
  United States v. Mixon, 457 F.3d 615 (7th Cir. 2006)
  United States v. Calimlim, 538 F.3d 706 (7th Cir. 2008)
  United States v. Knox, 540 F.3d 708 (7th Cir. 2008)
  United States v. Larsen, 615 F.3d 780 (7th Cir. 2010)
  Fischer v. Ozaukee County Circuit Court, 741 F. Supp.2d 944 (E.D. Wis. 2010)
  O’Keefe v. Chisholm, 769 F.3d 936 (7th Cir. 2014) (representing an Unnamed Intervenor), cert. denied, 135 S.Ct. 2311 (2015)
  United States v. Black, 773 F.3d 1113 (10th Cir. 2014)
  United States v. Weimert, 819 F.3d 351 (7th Cir. 2016) (Stephen J. Meyer counsel of record)
  Democratic National Committee v. Bostelmann, 977 F.3d 639 (7th Cir. 2020) (counsel for amicus curiae Common Cause of Wisconsin)
• State Appellate Courts
  Gaertner v. 880 Corp., 131 Wis. 2d 492, 389 N.W.2d 59 (Ct. App. 1986)
  State v. Willis, 552 N.E.2d 512 (Ind. App. 1990)
  State v. Borrell, 167 Wis. 2d 749, 482 N.W.2d 883 (1992)
  State v. Stevens, 171 Wis. 2d 106, 490 N.W.2d 753 (Ct. App. 1992)
  Daniels v. State, 650 So. 2d 544 (Ala. Crim. App. 1994), cert. denied, 514 U.S. 1024 (1995)
  State v. Cummings, 199 Wis. 2d 721, 546 N.W.2d 406 (1996)
  State v. Hobson, 218 Wis. 2d 350, 577 N.W.2d 825 (1998) (counsel for amicus curiae)
  State v. Brandt, 226 Wis. 2d 610, 594 N.W.2d 759 (1999)
  State v. Edmunds, 229 Wis. 2d 67, 598 N.W.2d 290 (Ct. App. 1999)
  State v. Davidson, 236 Wis. 2d 537, 613 N.W.2d 606 (2000) (counsel for amicus curiae)
  State v. Raflik, 248 Wis. 593, 636 N.W.2d 690 (2001)
  State v. Sveum, 2010 WI 92, 328 Wis. 2d 369, 787 N.W.2d 317
  State v. Williams, 2012 WI 59, 341 Wis. 2d 191, 814 N.W.2d 460
  State ex rel. Two Unnamed Petitioners v. Peterson, 2015 WI 85, 363 Wis. 2d 1, 866 N.W.2d 165 (2015), on reconsideration, 2015 WI 103
  State v. Stietz, 2017 WI 58, 375 Wis. 2d 572, 895 N.W.2d 796 (2017) (Charles W. Giesen counsel of record)

Recognition

• Champion of Justice award, ALLIANCE FOR JUSTICE (Washington, DC), 2016
• Fierce Advocate award, JOHN JAY COLLEGE (New York, NY), 2016
• Praeses Elit award, TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN, 2016
• James Joyce award and Honorary Fellowship, TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN, Literary & Historical Society, 2016
• Honorary Life Membership, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN, Law Society, 2016
• Invited Speaker, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND (Galway), 2016
• Honorary Life Membership, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF CORK, Law Society, 2016
• Honorary Life Membership, UNIVERSITY OF LIMERICK, Law Society, 2016
• Honorary Patronage, TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN, University Philosophical Society, 2016
• Howard B. Eisenberg award (with Jerome F. Buting), WISCONSIN STATE PUBLIC DEFENDER, 2016
• BEST LAWYERS IN AMERICA, since 2008
• SUPER LAWYERS, 2005—present; Wisconsin Top 50, 2009—2013, 2017—2022; Top 25 (Madison Area), 2012—2022; Wisconsin Top 10, 2019-22
• Robert W. Warren Public Service award, EASTERN DISTRICT OF WISCONSIN BAR ASSOCIATION, 2005
• William M. Coffey Defender award, WISCONSIN ASSOCIATION OF CRIMINAL DEFENSE LAWYERS, 2004

Bar Admissions

• Wisconsin, 1985
• Minnesota, 1986 (now inactive non-resident)
• Supreme Court of the United States, 1993
• United States Court of Federal Claims, 2008
• United States Court of Appeals for the
• Seventh Circuit, 1985
• Fifth Circuit, 1986
• Ninth Circuit, 1987
• Eighth Circuit, 1989
• Sixth Circuit, 1993
• Tenth Circuit, 2014
• United States District Court
• Eastern & Western Districts of Wisconsin, 1985
• Northern District of Illinois, 1992
• Southern District of Iowa, 1992
• District of Arizona, 1997
• Western District of Michigan, 1998
• District of Minnesota, 2006
• District of Colorado, 2015